The game is afoot for Chris Sullivan this week as he checks out the latest film from director Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows...
After his last blockbuster outing, I can’t say I was holding my breath for director Guy Ritchie’s latest, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. But I was pleasantly surprised by a flick that, while flawed, still held my attention for the whole of its 129 minutes.
Star Robert Downey Jr. seems to have grown into the role of the world's first consulting detective in the way that Johnny Depp became Jack Sparrow adding nuance that, however absurd, is quite appealing.
Add Jude Law’s straight man Dr. Watson, Stephen Fry as Mycroft, Holmes’s eccentric brother, Jared Harris as the nefarious Professor Moriarty and Noomi ‘Dragon Tattoo’ Rapace as the Romany heroine-cum-damsel in distress Madam Simza, and the resulting dish is pure pantomime.
That stops you from taking any of it seriously, which seems to be the point. Indeed, after almost 90 minutes I was still completely in the dark as to where the director or the writers were going with this higgledy piggledy plot but, it didn’t really matter as there’s enough slapstick, whizz bang wallop special effects, slow-mo, CGI, witty one liners and oddball characters to keep the entertainment factor high.
And just as I was wondering what on earth it was all about, Ritchie throws in a classic (but enormously clichéd scene) where the hero tells the baddie just what he’s been up to purely because we, the audience, are completely without a clue.
The plot is a mere formality but, for your information, it seems that evil genius Moriarty having precipitated the deaths of a number of seemingly disparate yet globally important parties, has somehow seized the means to produce munitions and medical provisions and is angling to kick off world war make a fortune and rule the world.
Clumsily-made and rather pointless, Ingmar Bergman it’s not. It’s more like Carry On Sherlock with overtones of Spaghetti Westerns and 21st-Century comic book action movie. It’ll annoy serious movie goers, and possibly serious Holmes fans, but there’s enough thrill-seekers in the Multiplex to make sure the franchise continues.
After the screening I headed back to Soho to host the party at Moonlighting (formerly landmark early 80’s club Le Beatroute) to celebrate the publication of the book We Can Be Heroes: Punks, Poseurs, Peacocks And People Of A Particular Persuasion - London
Club Land 1976-84.
For the book, I’ve written about 30,000 words to accompany the photographs of Graham Smith, who was the house smudger for the Blitz club and every groovy London nightspot up until 1985, while there are forewords and interviews with Boy George, Robert Elms, Gary Kemp and Steve Strange.
It’s an essential handbook for anyone is interested in what was the birth of Brit club culture, New Romantics, dance music or the 80s that contains oral history from anyone and everyone involved.
And they were all there: Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama and Shakespeare’s Sister), Boy George, Spandau Ballet, Jeremy 'Soft Cell' Healey and celeb hat maker Steven Jones, while I DJ'ed with Jay Strongman who was the UK’s first groovy global celeb DJ. To cut a long story short, it was a great night.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is on general release from Friday.
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